Trucks for use in collecting municipal solid waste refuse commonly include a grasping device for grabbing a container. The grasping device is mounted on a lift frame or swingable arm such that the container can be raised and dumped into the truck. Containers commonly range in size from 90 gallons to 400 gallons. The grabbing apparatus must firmly grip the container such that the container will be not dropped when it is lifted, yet the grabbing apparatus should not crush the container. In many of the prior structures, the grasping device will include a pair of opposed arms hydraulically and pivotally movable into grabbing engagement with the selected container. The grabbing arms have a configuration such that they can accommodate containers of certain sizes and shapes. Handling containers of different sizes requires the operator to move one set of grabbing arms and replace them with a second set of grabbing arms.
It is common in the prior art arrangements that the refuse truck will carry different sets of grabbing arms for different sized containers encountered on a collection route. Containers to be emptied may be 90 gallon containers, 150 gallon containers, 400 gallon containers, etc. If an operator has grabbers for lifting 90 gallon containers supported by the lift arm, and then encounters a 400 gallon container, it is necessary for the operator to get out of the cab, remove the 90 gallon grabbers, secure the 90 gallon grabbers to a storage bracket, remove two 400 gallon grabbers from a similar bracket and mount the 400 gallon grabbers on the lift boom. The grabbers are commonly difficult to install, and the larger grabbers can be quite heavy.
Municipalities commonly attempt to design their collection routes so that exchange of grabbers of different sizes is minimized, but planning the collection routes based on the size of the containers can result in inefficient routes.
One prior art attempt to design an apparatus functional to grasp refuse containers of various sizes is illustrated in the Breckenridge U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,407, issued Aug. 30, 1983.